Ineluctability
by RandomFlame
Summary: Yuugi is dying. The light cannot survive without the dark. Dependent upon Yuugi's continued existence to live, the Millenium puzzle calls for the two darkest beings in the Shadow Realm to bond with the young boy.


Title: Ineluctability  
Author: RandomFlame (me)  
Pairings: Yami Bakura/Yuugi, Yami Marik/Yuugi, onesided Yami Yuugi (Atemu)/Yuugi, possible Puzzle+Yuugi  
Rating:PG-13?  
Warnings:Yaoi, Shota, DarkFic, Probable OOC, Fan!Japanese, Cliche

Magic, in all of it's varied forms, has one common effect: no matter what spell is cast, or what object it is cast upon, the object is changed. While this change can be superficial, color, perhaps, or causing phosphorescence, one of the most common effects of magic is to cause something to have a simple sort of basic consciousness. The stronger the spell is, and the longer it lasts will increase the scope of this half-life, and one of the most basic instincts of life is the will to survive.

Such an extremely complicated spell as the one cast on the Millennium Items caused them to have this instinct in abundance, and so it was that when the Pharaoh Atemu decided to lock the Shadow Realm away, the Millennium Puzzle stepped in and gave him a short cut to doing so. It failed to mention that in doing so the seal to the Shadow Realm would eventually be breached, just as it failed to mention what would happen to Atemu's soul if he did this. So Atemu, believing that it was the only way to save his kingdom, used the short cut, and he was trapped within the Puzzle for four thousand years with no memories and his soul being slowly absorbed by the Shadow Realm.

Thousands of years later, the Millennium Puzzle was found by an old man named Sugoroku Motou. He was the owner of the Kame Game Shop and, knowing that his grandson, Yuugi, loved fames and puzzles as much as he did, he brought it home with him and gave it to Yuugi as a gift for his eighth birthday. Yuugi was instantly in love with it, and tried to solve it every moment of his free time.

Yuugi had always been small for his age, but after his eighth birthday, it seemed almost as if he didn't grow. Even years later, every time he went to the doctor, they told him that he was a perfectly normal eight year old boy. As a result of this, the Motou family moved often. During their fifth move, Yuugi's parents were hit by a truck and killed. Yuugi went to live with his grandfather. Sugoroku, always somewhat absentminded when the subject was neither archaeology nor games, forgot to take Yuugi in for checkups, and so he never learned of Yuugi's problem.

The reason for Yuugi's physical age was that the Milllennium Puzzle had attached itself to Yuugi's soul. The puzzle had consumed Atemu's soul for so long that it was out of balance. It had begun by eating the light of Atemu's soul, and by the time it was given to Yuugi, it had almost finished it off. Meanwhile, Atemu's darkness, which had always been slightly larger than his light, was expanding, trying to fill in the hole in his soul where his light had been.

This meant that it was much harder for the puzzle to absorb his darkness, so that when Yuugi began to spend so much time with the puzzle, it began to absorb the darkness in his soul. Yuugi was very young at the time, so it was extremely easy. The puzzle stripped him of his darkness in order to balance itself, so Yuugi was left with a soul made purely of light. If someone is out of balance, they will not grow, and because Yuugi was as out of balance as someone could get, this was reflected upon him physically.

As always, however, with magic comes change, and all three of them changed. Yuugi developed a connection with the puzzle, and through it, to Atemu. The puzzle unconsciously took Yuugi's darkness in exactly the same manner as it had taken Atemu's light, forcing Yuugi's soul into the mirror image of Atemu's, which is why they were drawn together when the puzzle was solved and Atemu freed into Yuugi's mind, and why they thought they were the other halves of each other's souls.

After the Battle City tournament, Marik and Bakura were sent to the Shadow Realm while Atemu, who went by the name of 'Yami', was able to get a body. He wasn't connected to the puzzle anymore, the connection had transferred to Yuugi, and because they were no longer connected, the puzzle could no longer draw on his light, and slowly his soul healed. When this happened, their two souls no longer fit together, and so Yuugi lost his yami, even though he was still there.  
Ryou Bakura and Malik Ishtar were able to survive the loss of their yamira because their respective Millennium Items were not as powerful as the puzzle, and they had not had them as long as Yuugi had had the puzzle. Also, they had each other. Yami Bakura had been in the Ring as an accident, and so the ring had latched onto Ryou, who was a light souled person, but Yami Marik had been created by the Rod to stabilize Malik.

Malik had been under great pressure when he was given the Millennium Rod, and his soul had been fluctuating wildly between light and dark. When Marik was banished to the Shadow Realm, Malik began to fluctuate again, but with more of an emphasis on the dark. Ryou, who was now unbalanced towards to light, stabilized him, and together they formed a balance. Little Yuugi had no one.  
Yuugi had been without a dark of his own for over half his life. Atemu had been almost dead for most of his time without light, so he was affected minimally, but Yuugi had been caught at the time in his life when his soul was still trying to form its shape. He couldn't heal, he didn't know how. The only thing his soul could produce was light, and so it did.

His soul gave off light to try to heal itself, but that only made it worse, and the cycle repeated itself. The puzzle, which was still connected to Yuugi, could feel him destroying himself, and so it tried to save itself and the hikari by summoning from the Shadow Realm its two darkest occupants, the yamira Bakura and Marik.

"_Do you see?_" the puzzle asked as it led the two toward the door of Yuugi's soul room. Bakura only looked at the small boy that was the physical manifestation of the puzzle, while Marik snorted. The door was shining. It was impossible to see any details of the door through the light, it was shining so brightly. When they arrived in front of it, the yamira saw that there was actually not a door at all, just a doorway leading into the hikari's soul room.

Following the puzzle through the doorway, they were struck by a blinding light, and covered their eyes. The puzzle rolled its eyes and created a barrier out of a few wisps of shadow. When the two slowly lowered their hands, they did not see what they had expected. They had expected to see a room filled with toys, as befitted a pharaoh's light. Instead, there was nothing. No toys, no things, not even walls or a ceiling, just the blinding light and a boy standing in the middle of it.

"_Do you see?_" the puzzle repeated. "_He's so bright he bleeds._" It looked behind itself at Bakura and Marik, who had shocked expressions on their faces. It watched as those looks became harder, calculating, and then hungry.

"He's not," Marik said. The puzzle tilted its head, confused.

"No," Bakura, agreed. "He's so bright it burns."

Both yamira stepped through the puzzle's shield, the light not hurting them, now that they knew to expect it. They walked over to Yuugi and stood in front of him. For the first time since he had entered his soul room, Yuugi reacted. He eyes focused and he truly saw the ones standing in front of him. "Yami...?" he asked, and then shook his head. "No." He tilted his head, much as the puzzle had done. "You are not darkness. You are..." He trailed off. Bakura and Marik waited, curious as to what he would say. Yuugi blinked. "You are shadow. ...Kagera."

Both Bakura and Marik smiled evilly. "That's right, little one," said Marik, "and you are our hikari."

Yuugi looked away. "No." Surprised again by the small boy, the two kagera, formerly yamira, looked at each other, back at Yuugi, and then at the puzzle. "I am not a light." The puzzle moved closer to the three, speaking as it walked.

"_He is correct._" It reached out and touched Yuugi's cheek, but Yuugi didn't seem to notice. "_Hikarira are creatures of innocence, and my poor boy has been through too much to be called truly innocent._" It shifted from looking at Yuugi to watching the two kagera. "_It is like how you two are no longer yamira. Your stay in the Shadow Realm has darkened you, just as his experiences have sharpened him. Any who touch him will be cut by the sparking crystal that he is._"

"He's not," said Bakura. He looked at the puzzle oddly.

"Didn't we tell you before?" Marik asked, "He's not bleeding, he's burning." Marik and Bakura each grabbed hold of one of Yuugi's arms. They leaned down to his ears in unison, Bakura on his right, and Marik on his left. They laughed softly, and then whispered in his ears.

"Come now, little one, wake up. Shine bright and burn all that stand in your way. The shadows call you and claim you as their own, flame, recca."

Again, Yuugi's eyes shifted and he focused on the two standing by his sides. "Gekkou," he said, looking over at Marik.

"Kotori." Marik nodded to him.

Yuugi looked over to Bakura. "Nikko," he said.

"Koneko."

Looking between the two, he smiled. "Atashi no... kagera..." He turned his head, and for the first time, saw the Millennium Puzzle. They locked eyes for a moment, and then Yuugi smile. "Arigatou," he said, and fainted.

Yami - Darkness  
Hikari - Light  
-ra - suffix used to indicate a plural  
Recca - Flame  
Kage - Shadow  
Atashi - formal way of saying 'I' Possibly considered weak or feminine?  
no - kinda like of, indicates possesion, read backwards i.e. storm no orchid would be read as orchid of storm, storm's orchid  
Kotori - little bird, baby bird  
Koneko - little cat, kitten  
Gekkou - Moonlight  
Nikkou - Sunlight  
Arigatou - Thank you


End file.
